Rebuilding an upright

[Fenton Murray]

Very Nice Jude,
An elegant solution to a procedure I've long thought about but never tried. 1/4" Lexan might work well instead of Masonite to easily draw your proposed rout out. Great technique. Do you still need epoxy or any other re-enforcement for the insert?
Fenton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jude Reveley/Absolute Piano 
  To: Piano Tech List 
  Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 6:59 PM
  Subject: Rebuilding an upright



  Hey Al,

  A few years ago, I used the following technique on a Beckstein L that I didn't want to pull all apart (see pictures below). It would work just as well for uprights if you want a real nice fit with more wood, less epoxy FWIW.

  Make a masonite template of the area you want to rout out. Rout out with pattern bits of varying depths 1/2" to 1-1/2". Fill masonite with epoxy to make a form and then use the form to rout out an exact copy of your cavity. Pretty simple overall; granted, a bit more work than just gap filling with epoxy but it's satisfying and I would especially recommend for open face blocks where you need that visual appeal. Charge the same as a small grand. 

  Jude Reveley, RPT
  Absolute Piano Restoration, LLC
  Lowell, Massachusetts
  (978) 323-4545

    Al, 
    Another pinblock option which the others have not mentioned yet: If the original block is still well attached to the back structure, rout out a cavity in the original block for each section of tuning pins, and inset a piece of new pinblock. Epoxy, screws, dowels, whatever makes you feel comfortable. This lets you preserve the plate/pinblock relationship, making soundboard/bridge alignment a lot less complicated, as described by Del. 
    Mike 
     
    AlliedPianoCraft wrote: 
    > I just got a call to rebuild a Stieff upright which the customer > believes was made in the 1920"s. He wants a new soundboard, pinblock etc. 
    > > While I have installed many soundboards (I don't make my own) and > pinblocks in grands, I have never replaced any in uprights. 
    > > I have two questions: 1, Is it more or less difficult to replace a > soundboard and pinblock on an upright? 2, Comparative price. How > should I estimate the job as compared to a grand. 
    > > Thanks for any input. 
    > > Al Guecia 

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